Collected - 1987 Volvo 740 GL

[HillmanImp]

Undoubtedly mine won't have been and will start playing up as I begin to use the car.

Assume its these pipes. 

Might look at blanking them off in the summer if it doesn't cause me any grief before then. 

[danthecapriman]

10 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Undoubtedly mine won't have been and will start playing up as I begin to use the car.

Assume its these pipes. 

Might look at blanking them off in the summer if it doesn't cause me any grief before then. 

Pretty sure that is them, yes. 
It was a similar idea to what the US used with the smog pumps on engines in the late 70’s and 80’s which just pumped air into the exhaust to water down the emissions. Many of them have since been removed. 
I’ve never had that particular engine version in any of my Volvo’s so it’s not something I’ve ever come up against. Most have mine have been the B230E versions.

Another good idea is clean out the engine breathers and flame trap. They always get clogged and messy on these which then starts pressurising the crankcase. Eventually it starts leaking oil as gaskets start blowing out! One of mine kept blasting its dipstick out of the tube every time you rev the engine! It stopped as soon as the breather was cleaned out. 
It’s usually around/under the intake manifold area, although on your engine it may be different.

Usually, there’s also a sticker in one of the door shuts that should tell you what brake system(s) you have fitted. That said, mine said one thing but I actually had something completely different fitted.

[HillmanImp]

Ordered lots of bits and bobs along with the crank shaft holding tool today.  Will arrive in the next couple of days. Already have the cambelt and tensioner. Just need some good weather to allow me to get on with it.

Sensationalist nonsense. Sure it'll be fine

[HillmanImp]

6 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Another good idea is clean out the engine breathers and flame trap. They always get clogged and messy on these which then starts pressurising the crankcase. Eventually it starts leaking oil as gaskets start blowing out! One of mine kept blasting its dipstick out of the tube every time you rev the engine! It stopped as soon as the breather was cleaned out. 
It’s usually around/under the intake manifold area, although on your engine it may be different.

Usually, there’s also a sticker in one of the door shuts that should tell you what brake system(s) you have fitted. That said, mine said one thing but I actually had something completely different fitted.

Will clean these out then, ta for the heads up.

Not going to look for the brakes sticker yet as don't want to depress myself when I find out I've got some random overly complicated system that was only used for 2 weeks and parts can only be collected in person from a specialist supplier in Sweden or something. 😱

[danthecapriman]

4 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Will clean these out then, ta for the heads up.

Not going to look for the brakes sticker yet as don't want to depress myself when I find out I've got some random overly complicated system that was only used for 2 weeks and parts can only be collected in person from a specialist supplier in Sweden or something. 😱

I don’t think any of them are impossible to get bits for. It’s more that there’s lots of different manufacturers and  mixtures of manufacturers parts on cars. 
It’s worth checking though that the sticker does actually match what’s on your car though! I once ordered parts for mine based on the sticker and found when the bits arrived they were correct for the rears but wrong for fronts for some reason. 
I remember calliper’s being expensive too if you need replacement’s.

Front anti roll bar link pins have two different types too if you need those. One type is for cast iron lower arms, the other is for cast ally lower arms. That’s something else I screwed up on when I first got my current 740!

[DirtyDaily]

Just seen this. I approve of the replacement of the A6! Lovely looking thing and I will always have a soft spot for an old boxy Volvo. First dibs when you sell it in a month or two.

[stuboy]

i decided to look at 850 auto estates.. found one for 2.5k, very nice but its 2.5k

[captain_70s]

15 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I don’t think any of them are impossible to get bits for. It’s more that there’s lots of different manufacturers and  mixtures of manufacturers parts on cars. 
It’s worth checking though that the sticker does actually match what’s on your car though! I once ordered parts for mine based on the sticker and found when the bits arrived they were correct for the rears but wrong for fronts for some reason. 
I remember calliper’s being expensive too if you need replacement’s.

Front anti roll bar link pins have two different types too if you need those. One type is for cast iron lower arms, the other is for cast ally lower arms. That’s something else I screwed up on when I first got my current 740!

Brookhouse do both types of anti roll bar links. Although not cheap they were about the only UK stockists of the type I needed.

When doing the brakes on mine I found one style of front caliper to be nearly extinct in the UK and about £130 a side. The other type was £100 for a pair and available everywhere.

My car is the has the later 15" wheels though, so probably possibly bigger calipers. (I know not all later calipers will fit behind a 14" wheel).

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

Brookhouse do both types of anti roll bar links. Although not cheap they were about the only UK stockists of the type I needed.

When doing the brakes on mine I found one style of front caliper to be nearly extinct in the UK and about £130 a side. The other type was £100 for a pair and available everywhere.

My car is the has the later 15" wheels though, so probably possibly bigger calipers. (I know not all later calipers will fit behind a 14" wheel).

Sounds like you have the cast ally lower arms with the straight pin type link pins? If so you have the same type as mine, and I had to get my pins off RockAuto from the US! At the time nobody I could find in the uk had them in stock.

If you’ve got the 15’’ wheels the later cars have I think the disc and everything is slightly bigger and won’t fit the 14’’ cars. Unless you change wheels obviously! 
Mines got 14’’, but when I did the brakes a few years ago I managed to get a full set of genuine Volvo discs and pads, and a non genuine fitting kit for the callipers. Wasn’t too expensive but the callipers weren’t cheap at the time. Luckily mine were ok. It might be that the callipers for the 14’’ cars are just rarer and harder to get now? Hence more expensive?

The aftermarket fitting kits are crap btw! They go together ok but the rubber dust covers are absolute poo. Within a year the rubber had started cracking and perishing! They’re falling apart now.

[HillmanImp]

I want to go for a run but am waiting for the delivery of my parts which are meant to be arriving between 11.59 and 12.59. 

Was this OMG RANDOM PARTS KAOS common in the 1980s? I've had similar things on more modern VWs being fitted with weird and wonderful alternatives to what was expected but for most of my older cars, it was all pretty standard and simple to figure out what car had what parts.

I remember the old Audi 100 'Auschwitz' (big, white, German, runs on gas) having a totally random carb on it but after a bit of investigation we figured out it was after @Lankytim had found it on a scrap Audi 80 which we assume must've been imported from South Africa, hence it having a carb that wasn't available over here. Most of the time, parts were pretty uniform.

It just strikes me as being very expensive for Volvo.

It's 13.06 now. Might need to hang fire on the run.

[danthecapriman]

Some things are a bit mix n match on these cars. 

There’s various different injection systems. 
Various different carb systems. 
Different types of head design and even a 16v version.   
Brakes, again, quite a few different makes and designs. Which can also differ front and rear and differ between a particular cars age. 
The wiring harness can change too. Mine doesn’t match the manual for age & spec! Most of the wire colours are different to what the book says. 
Front lower arms - cast iron or cast ally. Which makes the anti roll bar link pins different and not interchangeable.   
Instrument cluster can be one of two different type/make.

I don’t know why tbh. I guess it’s just different part suppliers Volvo used at the time and what was available when?

The good thing is though if you get into these cars you do soon learn what your cars made of!

[HillmanImp]

Yeah, they built them in a few places too didn't they. Looking at my chassis number it seems mine was made in Belgium.

Normally at this point I'd make some sort of joke about the car related to something Belgium is famous for but I genuinely can't think of anything or anyone interesting to rip into that comes from there. Not a thing.

[danthecapriman]

4 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Yeah, they built them in a few places too didn't they. Looking at my chassis number it seems mine was made in Belgium.

From what I gather most of UK cars were made in Belgium. A good thing apparently as the quality was better. Other than that they were also made in Sweden. I think Oz also made them.

6 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Normally at this point I'd make some sort of joke about the car related to something Belgium is famous for but I genuinely can't think of anything or anyone interesting to rip into that comes from there. Not a thing.

Belgian chocolate??? That’s about it I think!

[Matty]

Don't forget the joke off In Bruge.

"Two things Belgians are famous for. Chocolate and paedofiles. And they only invented the chocolate to get at the kids."

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Not a thing.

Not even a great detective?

[tooSavvy]

51 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Not even a great detective?

Van Der Valk....

[stuboy]

this has got me looking at volvo estates

[Captain Mainwaring]

5 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

Normally at this point I'd make some sort of joke about the car related to something Belgium is famous for but I genuinely can't think of anything or anyone interesting to rip into that comes from there. Not a thing.

 

[coachie]

Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Moule Frites?

Mayo on everything (hopefully not your oil filler cap though)

[Ghosty]

Here's a Dutch song about Belgium. 

The point of it is that Dutch people think Belgium is crap but he can't think of anywhere better to live. 

 

 

[tooSavvy]

Ergo..... Tyneside 🤣

[wuvvum]

Do Dutch people have particularly strong views about Tyneside?

[High Jetter]

13 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Do Dutch people have particularly strong views about Tyneside?

Only if they visit and inhale 🤣

[Captain Mainwaring]

Here's an AC/DC song relating to Belgium. One of the weaker numbers on this album, but not bad all the same.

 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

15 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

Normally at this point I'd make some sort of joke about the car related to something Belgium is famous for but I genuinely can't think of anything or anyone interesting to rip into that comes from there. Not a thing.

These come in useful pre-MoT time on mine:

 

[cms206]

More importantly than all this shit, get this on and pretend everything is fine.

I have it on vinyl. It is my only vinyl record.

 

https://youtu.be/S7HTTZZUfUE?si=msYvqlTRIqs60iY-

[HillmanImp]

Righto. Cambelt changed and the car seems to be working. 

Had to change all the oil seals too as they were fucked and had a bit of a mare removing some of the pulleys on my own which gave me the fear and I was absolutely convinced I'd fucked it up royally, cue a phone call to Volksy to come over, check everything looked okay before it got started. 

I think the oil seals were just old, but I'd better clean out the flame trap etc in case its gonna cause some grief. 

Access looks good. 😂 

[danthecapriman]

Most of the time doing the breathers and flame trap is done by feel alone! They are an arse to do sometimes.

On my current one Itd been left ages and got clogged, then as pressure built up the two halves of the flame trap holder popped apart.

 

[HillmanImp]

My optimism was premature. 

Just been out for lunch and I seem to be pissing oil out, I assume from one of the seals I replaced. 

They were all seated okay, no rolling but the crankshaft one went a lot further back than the one I took out, which seemed odd at the time. I assumed I needed to push it as far as it goes but do I need to put it just at the outer edge? 

Will have to see where its coming from. 

Oh well, will just order some new seals and give it another crack next weekend. 😣

[DirtyDaily]

My optimism was premature. 
Just been out for lunch and I seem to be pissing oil out, I assume from one of the seals I replaced. 
They were all seated okay, no rolling but the crankshaft one went a lot further back than the one I took out, which seemed odd at the time. I assumed I needed to push it as far as it goes but do I need to put it just at the outer edge? 
Will have to see where its coming from. 
Oh well, will just order some new seals and give it another crack next weekend.

If you've not done the flame trap do that ASAP. They push the seals out constantly as a result of excess crank pressure. You could feasibly replace that and all the oil leaks will sort themselves out. Ask me how I know.